Container stevedore ECT has announced a package of measures to tackle the waiting times for inland shipping resulting from the current peak congestion, the company said in its press release.
In a letter to its customers, the company announces, among other things, that inland vessels must load and/or unload a minimum, but unspecified, number of containers during the summer months. In this way, the company wants to prevent an inland vessel from occupying valuable quay space with just a couple of containers.
ECT also wants to utilise the storage capacity as efficiently as possible by restricting the time containers stay at the terminals and by no longer storing empty containers in the automatic stacks, unless they are destined for a particular ship. In addition, the company wants to keep a strict control on agreed times for container delivery and pick-up.
The company also announced that the provision of information would be improved and that the capacity of the interterminal transport and the landside handling would be increased. ECT stresses that all of the terminals are already operating above their normal capacity, but that waiting times might still occur despite this.
Not only the port of Rotterdam is exceptionally busy, so too are Antwerp and Hamburg.